David Mitchell, Howard Jacobson and David Nicholls make the 2014 Booker Prize
longlist but there is no place for Donna Tartt's Pulitzer-winner The
Goldfinch

Donna Tartt's Pulitzer Prize-winner The Goldfinch has been left off the Man Booker Prize longlist and a crowdfunded debut novel has earned inclusion in a line-up dominated by American and British talent at the expense of Commonwealth authors.

In the first year that the £50,000 prize has been opened up to writers from every country, US writers feature strongly but the British retain the edge.

There are six novels from Britain, five from the US, one from Australia and one from Ireland.

The British novels are J by Howard Jacobson, The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth, The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell, The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee, Us by David Nicholls and How To Be Both by Ali Smith.

This is the first time that a crowd-funded book has appeared on the list.

Paul Kingsnorth’s debut novel, set in 1066 and written in a “shadow version of Old English”, was published by Unbound, which invites book-lovers to pledge money towards a book’s publication in exchange for rewards such as having their name included in the credits.

Jacobson won the Booker Prize in 2010 with The Finkler Question, while Mitchell and Smith have each been shortlisted twice before.

Nicholls is something of a surprise entry because he has not hitherto been regarded as a writer of literary fiction. He is best known for his runaway best-seller One Day.

Howard Jacobson could win his second Booker Prize

The other surprise on the list is the judges’ decision not to include Donna Tartt. Her novel, The Goldfinch, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in April.

Five American novels do make the longlist: To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Jay Fowler, The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt, Orfeo by Richard Powers and The Dog by Irish-American author Joseph O’Neill.

The only Commonwealth writer in contention is Australia’s Richard Flanagan for The Narrow Road to the Deep North. The Irish entry is History of the Rain by Niall Williams.

AC Grayling, chairman of the judges, said publishers had failed to send in many Commonwealth books for consideration.

“It looks as though the publishers have put forward a number of American authors slightly at the expense of Commonwealth writers.

“But I do think this is something that will adjust itself very quickly. It’s almost certainly the publishers feeling their way with American authors and I’m quite sure that will right itself,” he said.

Grayling acknowledged that The Goldfinch had been considered a “shoo-in” by many but declined to say what the judges had made of it.

The shortlist will be announced on September 9 and the winner on October 14.

Grayling said on behalf of the judging panel: “This is a diverse list of ambition, experiment, humour and artistry. The novels selected are full of wonderful stories and fascinating characters.

“The judges were impressed by the high quality of writing and the range of issues tackled – from 1066 to the future, from a PoW camp in Thailand to a dentist’s chair in Manhattan; from the funny to the deeply serious, sometimes in the same book.”